Music review: Exciting struggle in 'Light'

Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 20, 2009

The San Francisco Symphony's new composer residency program got off to an exciting start Wednesday night with the first local performance of "The Light of the End," a potent and evocative orchestral essay by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina.

If this is the sort of musical reward to be had by importing major composers from elsewhere, I say bring 'em on.

Gubaidulina's soulful, dark-hued music, though increasingly in evidence around the world and on disc, has been surprisingly absent from the Bay Area (although the Kronos Quartet has been a frequent champion). Wednesday's performance in Davies Symphony Hall, led with vigor and commitment by guest conductor Kurt Masur, was a welcome corrective.

"The Light of the End," written in 2003, outlines a 20-minute struggle between two musical worlds: the acoustical world produced by the natural properties of sound, and the system of equal temperament that evolved during the Baroque era to tame and regularize those properties.

In the Beethovenian struggle that Gubaidulina sets up, natural acoustics are represented by the brass, which revel in the bright, pure tones that the instruments produce when they're not being held in check by players. This time around, the composer instructs them to let these brilliant brass colors shine forth unimpeded, and the Symphony players - led by a dazzling contribution from acting associate principal horn Bruce Roberts - complied.

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On the other side is the rest of the orchestra, which insists on the normalizing force of culture. "Why not go along to get along?" they argue. "Give up a little of what makes you distinctive and we'll all be better off."

Those are the terms of the debate, but the dramatic sweep of the piece transcends the specifics. The energy level roils unpredictably throughout, as great cresting waves of orchestral sound alternate with passages of precisely etched intimacy. Early on, the strings offer up a dark, gnarled chorale; later, Gubaidulina's delicate use of percussion provides exquisite coloration.

Perhaps the most gripping passage comes when the principal cello, as though appointing itself an ambassador to the world of the brass, delivers a rhapsodic theme based on the natural overtone series - the brass' elemental language. It's a beautiful moment of reconciliation, and Michael Grebanier delivered it with tender grace.

Masur, a longtime advocate for Gubaidulina's music, led a glorious performance, marked by clear dramatic shape and a distinctive rhythmic profile in even the most seemingly unmoored passages.

The evening's long second half was devoted to Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, in an eloquent performance that emphasized the work's Schubertian lilt rather than its grandiosity. The pairing began as a stroke of serendipity, as the horn call that opens the Bruckner - deftly delivered by principal Robert Ward - seemed to hark back to Gubaidulina's concerns.

But soon enough, Masur guided his audience firmly into the Brucknerian world of large-scale harmonic shifts and big formal paragraphs. The strings and woodwinds responded splendidly to his leadership, producing a performance rich in color and thankfully free of bombast.

San Francisco Symphony: The program repeats at 8 p.m. today and Saturday in Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets: $30-$130. Call (415) 864-6000 or go to www.sfsymphony.org.

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